Fitzcarraldo

Synopsis

Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.

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Based on a true story! The boldest most ambitious project launched by Werner Herzog has become his worst nightmare! It was literally Herzog's "Apocalypse Now". Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong! It's as if the film was cursed right from the get go! Like Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog dives into the deep end of a mind numbing obsession!

Behind the scenes Klaus Kinski goes on one of his legendary rampages and irks the natives to the point one of the chiefs goes out of his way to tell Herzog he would kill Kinski for him! There is no doubt about it Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog were both out of their ever lovin minds and the camera captured this…

Those of you who are unfamiliar or only recently acquainted with director Werner Herzog, you may only know him for his later work as one of the most interesting documentary filmmakers working today or for his eccentric and endlessly fascinating, well publicized personality. However, Herzog was made famous back in the day for being a frontrunner of the German New Wave film movement, making non-traditional narrative films that pushed the envelope of the cinema language. He has made a wide variety of films over the years and is often noted for the recurring theme of man’s relationship with nature and an intense reverence and respect for it, some might even say a fear of it. Fitzcarraldo is one of Herzog’s…

"The arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in our control, and not the other way around." -Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, Godzilla (2014)

Werner Herzog's exacting precision regarding the realism and scale of his films makes them truly enduring beauties. The old saying "the more fun something was to make, the less fun it is to watch" finds its ultimate inverse proof here in Fitzcarraldo: production was a disaster, but the result is a treasure. Klaus Kinski fought so often over such trivial matters that members of the crew offered to have him killed, and the dangerous nature of Herzog's audacious stunts and set pieces left at least two cast members dead. But from these hardships grew unprecedented cinematic art.…

Fuck La La Land, this is the film for the ones who dreams! Its by these mad dreams and obsessions the most stunning achievements, moments and creations are made. Fitzcarraldo is a glorious, madly ambitious and fun spectacle.

As blood is spilled in Fitz's quest to do something no one has ever done (nor would ever do again), it became clearer than it ever has been before. There are no manmade wonders not built with blood. Perhaps this is why the Grand Canyon is said to be so magnificent--no one suffered to make it. It simply is, a vast stretch of land ripped out of the landscape by God, nature, or both. But manmade wonders have all been crafted by slave or serf labor, exploitation or oppression, blood money, or other ruthless contracts. Fitz's quest is predicated on blatant exploitation (of the religion of his workers, no less) and dangerous obsession. I don't know what wage Herzog paid…

Fitzcarraldo is a film about, but also itself rooted in, obsession in the face of the impossible. Wanting to leave your mark no matter the cost. Before now I had only seen Herzog’s documentaries, but this still feels very much like a Herzog film. Comprised of long, meditative shots of both nature and the subjects of the film, very philosophical in theme. Given the film’s production, this may as well be a documentary considering all of the torturous realism that was put into creating it. The scale of it is incredible, Herzog himself becoming his own Fitzcarraldo. Leaving his own mark on the world in the same…

Magnificent. One of the greatest endings of all time. Such joy and ecstasy and absurdity. The movie presents all the conflicts of art and beauty and colonization and exploitation and obsession and near madness. I've been obsessed with this film since seeing the beautiful, bizarre, intriguing VHS cover in a Blockbuster video. And all the many years of waiting were worth it.

To watch Fitzcarraldo is to discover another reason why no other art form can surpass the power of cinema. You watch thousands of men dragging a steamboat across a mountain in the Amazon, and you cannot help but be in awe. Truly, this movie is enjoyed by what it achieved, more than what it’s about.

The dillema between ethics and aesthetics is very strong in this film. However, in my opinion, the ethical issue in this film was very successful (apart from its impressive aesthetics) in discussing the content in this film. Fitzcarraldo shows how arrogant white people are in expanding the new world. Colonialism has surpassed the issue of gold, but it has been about cultural colonization.

Klaus Kinski is the hairo the world needs right now. What a preposterous tale of ambition, a wonderful merging of high art and low means, the complexity of morals, and the burden of the existential. It has the gravitas of a Greek epic, exceptional acting by an eclectic cast, and is an absolute beauty to look at. Indeed, the camera work is stunning. Despite the heaviness of the content (har har) there is still a lightness of form and indeed a general levity and briskness under these otherwise extreme conditions that makes it simply an incredibly exciting filmic experience.